Humor

A sense of humor is a lot like how you like your eggs cooked — everyone’s tastes and preferences are different. It’s why, then, that humor is arguably the most controversial success factor in our Creative Effectiveness Playbook. Given a creative department’s risk threshold is often much higher than that of their brand custodian peers, tension levels often skyrocket when the topic of humor is broached during the creative development process.

Notwithstanding its universal subjectivity, the success of humor largely comes down to its delivery. Too subtle, and it risks going straight over people’s heads; too brash or over-the-top and the risk of confusion and irritation increases dramatically.

But short of recommending advertising adopt the personality of a dried biscuit, it’s important to remember that being bold, brave, and (sometimes) brash can also lead to big rewards. When it hits the mark, humor is not only one of advertising’s most powerful mechanisms for grabbing (and holding) people’s attention, but it can also provide a quick and easy way to build and refresh long-term memory structures.

Humor, therefore, has the potential to become a powerful branding device and offers tremendous creative flexibility as a campaign evolves. Furthermore, it can also be easily condensed into shorter spots and carried over to other touchpoints, amplifying campaign effects.

To help marketers navigate the pitfalls of using humor in advertising, we’ve delved into a few recent campaigns that either nailed their punchlines or bombed completely.   

Yorkshire Tea — Carbon Neutral 🇬🇧

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Longstanding U.K. brand, Yorkshire Tea, has built a reputation for its dry, Northern English humor. The brand’s 2020 spot — which aimed to promote the brand’s newfound eco-friendly credentials — leveraged these established traits.

The quirky, slow-paced execution featured Yorkshire Tea’s real-life illustrator, Andrew Hutchinson, creatively adapting the pack design to emphasize the brand’s environmental commitments. Leveraging the brand’s dry sense of humor and typically understated approach, the ad succeeded in putting a smile on people’s faces. Overall, the campaign was thoroughly enjoyed, thanks largely to the protagonist’s sardonic commentary which overlayed the comically absurd illustrations.

Tie humor into the proposition: By intertwining humor with the ad’s key message, it resulted in less mental arithmetic — ultimately leading to a crystal-clear impression being seeded in people’s minds. Despite its slow pace and lengthy run time, Carbon Neutral simultaneously entertained and informed viewers by combining the brand’s laidback personality with other recognizable cues (including the packaging itself). Importantly, this ensured the comedic approach didn’t overshadow the brand’s sustainability focus.‍

Read more about Yorkshire Tea’s ‘Carbon Neutral’ here.

Cutwater Spirits — Here’s to the Lazy Ones 🇺🇸

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While Super Bowl commercials tend to lean heavily into comedy in an attempt to stand out, Cutwater Spirits swam against the tide — setting itself apart through the use of self-deprecating humor.

Whereas celeb-heavy, action-packed advertising can amuse and engage through the bizarre and obscene (as seen in Frito-Lay’s 2022 Super Bowl spot), Here’s to the Lazy One’s calmer pace hero-ed the caricatured relatability of Super Bowl viewers while painting the brand with the same brush. As a result, viewers were mesmerized by the humorous celebration of all things laid-back and lazy, reinforcing the brand’s down-to-earth reputation.

Find relatability through a truth: If the humor is founded on a human truth, it’s much more likely to strike a chord with viewers. This was where Here’s to the Lazy Ones excelled, building relatability by centering the lighthearted narrative around a universally understood insight. In recognition that Super Bowl Sunday is not the most physically active day in the calendar (for most people!), viewers easily connected with the idea of “reaching better results with less effort” — ultimately building favorability toward the promise of easy, convenient, hassle-free cocktails.‍

Read more about the Super Bowl alcohol ads here.

Barista Bros — Catfish 🇦🇺

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By using ‘a lot of catfish’ in disguise to emphasize the irresistible taste of its reformulated iced coffee, Barista Bros certainly left no stone unturned in an attempt to stand out. However, while the over-the-top and unconventional plot struck a chord with some viewers, many others were turned off.

By zeroing in on the little-known fact that catfish possess an inordinate number of taste buds, the concept ultimately drew attention to all the wrong places. People were fixated on the squirmy character instead of messaging around the product’s reformulated taste (as well as the more likeable character’s delivery of said message). This left many people frustrated and confused about the catfishes’ intended purpose. Worse still, some even found the fishy presence annoying or irritating, ultimately leaving a bad taste in their mouths.

Simple humor generally works best: Often in advertising, less is more. People don’t want and aren’t willing to work hard to decipher messaging, meaning humor needs to be easily interpretable in order to get the biggest bang for buck. While the concept of linking multiple tastebuds to a reformulated flavor is broadly understandable (and even fun), the central character was ultimately too unusual and unrelatable to the category — overshadowing the ad’s humorous intentions.

‍Read more about Barista Bros’ ‘Catfish’ here.

Final word

The subjectiveness of humor means its ability to resonate with the population at large (which is generally who advertisers are attempting to target) is often very difficult. What’s funny to one group may be irritating to another. However, it’s a constant allure for marketers because, when done well, humor can be a highly effective mechanism for capturing attention.

Making people laugh injects positive emotion very quickly, making it easily adaptable to shorter formats. It’s also effective at building and refreshing memory structures, and can evolve into a distinctive branding property over time. With ongoing research highlighting the chasm which exists between the types of people working in creative agencies and those they ultimately seek to influence, our strong advice is to test as early as possible in the creative development process to ensure humor is going to land in the intended way.

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Explore further learnings in our hub: The Creative Effectiveness Playbook.